Bitter Cold, Some Snow Expected For Weekend
PITTSBURGH (KDKA) – If you're planning on being outside at all for the next few days, you should probably bundle up; harsh winter weather is ahead for the weekend.
The National Weather Service has issued a Wind Chill Watch for Allegheny, Armstrong, Beaver, Butler, Clarion, Crawford, Lawrence, Mercer, Venango and Washington counties beginning late Saturday night through Sunday morning.
Other parts of the area are under a Winter Weather Advisory, including Cambria, Indiana, Jefferson and Somerset counties.
Latest Forecast:
"At wake up [Saturday] morning, we'll start off at 21 degrees, we could have a few flurries around the area first thing [Saturday] morning and that will likely evolve into a period of some snow showers, maybe a couple snow squalls from late morning, lunch time and early afternoon,," said KDKA Chief Meteorologist Jeff Verszyla. That's when we'll pick up our accumulation, and then that threat is going to go by the wayside, but by late in the day is when the colder air starts arriving and it gets a little windy, so our temperature starts to drop down to 16 by late tomorrow afternoon."
The bitter chill certainly was taxing on exposed skin Friday morning, and it was no less challenging on furnaces in our area.
The folks at Wahl Family Heating and Cooling have been getting some pretty desperate calls.
"Definitely the desperation," said David Wahl. "They want to get us out there as soon possible, so we have people on call 24/7 to get out there and take care of those issues."
Wahl says you can reduce the chances of your furnace leaving you in the cold by choosing a fixed temperature.
"If you have a thermostat that is set to go down to 68 and then back up to 72, put it in hold mold and keep it at 72 when we are in these extreme temperatures so the furnace doesn't have to catch up," he says.
But for some people left in the cold, it wasn't a matter of furnace maintenance.
People's Natural Gas Crews worked to restore service to 91 homes in Allegheny Township, Westmoreland County. A water main break blew a fist-sized hole in a gas line and that meant no heat for a lot people.
Crews went door to door relighting pilot lights Friday Night.
The cold abated a bit Friday as the sun helped, and put PennDOT in a mode of responding to problem spots.
"If you see an ice condition, report it to us and we'll go out there and treat that ice condition and look for ways that it doesn't keep happening over and over again," said Angelo Pampena, PennDOT's Allegheny County manager.
For Saturday, expect periods of snow and squalls across the area.
"Most areas about one to two inches with that period of about a four-hour window from about 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. or noon to 4 p.m., give or take an hour or two on either side. Three to four inches due to elevation to our south and east," said Verszyla. "And then that threat again goes away and then the cold air starts flooding into the area."
Pampena says it will be all hands on deck on Saturday to handle yet another round of snow.
"Every weekend the storms seem to hit and we need to get our people out," he added. "Our folks are getting tired; they're spending a lot of time away from their families. We hope it's coming to an end by now.
KDKA's John Shumway Reports:
Of course, that means working on Valentine's Day, and while we're on that topic florist Marcia Pulman Petkovich says be careful what you do with those flowers once you leave the flower shop.
Unless you want brown or black flowers, be sure they are properly covered.
"Don't leave them in the car, take them into the office, take them into the house, don't prepare to take them tomorrow morning and have left them in the garage overnight, because even in the garage, it gets kind of chilly," she says.
Saturday night and Sunday will be brutally cold with a low of minus-1 and a Sunday high of 7 above.
Wind chills during this time frame could range from 25-30 degrees below zero.
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